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I was shocked when I found out about so many Amish running puppymills. They have the most in this country. Unfortunately the stereotypes about Native Americans are true too. Ask anyone that has worked with them in human service jobs (like me) or has worked on a reservation. Often stereotypes come about because there is some truth to it. This is not to say that all Amish are bad or all NA's are drinkers. Anyone that works in dog welfare/rescue hate the Amish for being so damn cruel.

Given the history of the native americans it's frankly a surprise that alcoholism isn't a 100% thing among them. Talk about a group of people seriously getting effed by immigrants. Maybe that's why such a large segment of Americans are so hostile to immigrants. It's not just fear of "others" taking what's "not theirs" via taxpayer provided programs, it's fear that they will get treated as horrendously as their ancestors treated the NA's.

As far as Amish puppy mills, I don't know anything about them. I can only assume that the Amish have a different perception of the value of a dog's life. People who live on farms don't view animal lives the same way city people do. If they did factory farming wouldn't exist. The majority of Americans eat meat that comes from factory farms because they are either ignorant or pretend to be ignorant of what happens on a factory farm. After all, who doesn't like to go to the store and get a nice, reasonably priced piece of delicious meat for dinner. The ugliness that accompanies that meat is safely hidden from them. Just because cows and chickens and pigs lack the "adorable" factor that puppies have should we be less concerned about how they get treated?

As far as Amish puppy mills, I don't know anything about them. I can only assume that the Amish have a different perception of the value of a dog's life. People who live on farms don't view animal lives the same way city people do. If they did factory farming wouldn't exist. The majority of Americans eat meat that comes from factory farms because they are either ignorant or pretend to be ignorant of what happens on a factory farm. After all, who doesn't like to go to the store and get a nice, reasonably priced piece of delicious meat for dinner. The ugliness that accompanies that meat is safely hidden from them. Just because cows and chickens and pigs lack the "adorable" factor that puppies have should we be less concerned about how they get treated?

+1 I agree 100%. One of the reasons I became vegetarian years back was because I recognized the subjective factor in food choice, and resultant hypocrisy in my attitudes towards animals. So we can torture cows, but killing horses is a horror. When I realized that I would never eat my dog, I came to the conclusion that I likewise could never be comfortable eating my dog's "cousins" either. Just because I have a personal relationship with my dog, that makes her safe, but I can objectify other animals?

I remember when Cecil the Lion was bagged and all that outcry that drove the dentist/hunter into hiding, I read a great essay that talked about how if the lion hadn't had such a cute name, there likely wouldn't have been as much outcry.

"Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Townwww.silententry.wordpress.com

Caesarian surgery without anesthesia is wrong but also illegal. Hard to spin that one.

Of COURSE mills treat dogs like livestock, whether Amish or not. That is why the dogs coming put of mills may make poor house pets, they arent socializd.

Story time: our latest foster dog came from someone's home. On his first night here he cried at bedtime. I remarked to DH that it had been forever since we had a cryer at night. Then I remembered that our last 3 foster dogs were from mills and also females. Bitches are not big babies like the boys are, and besides, they learn not to cry in a mill because no one pays attention.

The good news is that our mill bitches were sort of from a "mill-light" or a large backyrd operation where the dogs got some attention. Lily Bean was not put in that environment until she was 6 months old and she is independant, and brave, not a mill personality at all.

To be clear, I'm not in favor of puppy mills or factory farms. But whether something is wrong and whether it is illegal are two unrelated issues. Plenty of cruel things happen on factory farms that are perfectly legal. That doesn't make them any less wrong. By the same but opposite token, it's illegal in some states to make and distribute videos of the activities that happen on factory farms. The only thing "wrong" with that is that it threatens big agriculture. So we have an illegal non-wrong.

We adopted a puppymill breeder that was deaf and 10 when she escaped the mill. She was totally unsocialized. It took us years to be able to pet her, pick her up, etc. 10 years later she is the happiest dog on the planet. Each day when she wakes up she runs around the bed barking her head off until we all wake up. She bounces off the cupboards in happiness twice a day to get her treats. Some mill dogs never adapt and come out of their shell.

Off topic from Tiny house original posting: I had no idea of the puppy mill/amish relation. I loved being around the Amish or shall I say interested when we lived in the area up north. I loved the natural life or so I thought. Then one day I realized the women, yes strong physically, then I thought of the barefoot and pregnant, no education, subservient and such. My view changed to gosh I felt sorry for them. Anything for a buck really was what I learned about the Amish at least in the area up north. Then we lived by Quivers in lower Mi for a while. Man looked like most labor workers and drove a truck. I would see the wife in her long dresses and cloaks go to a cleaning job each day. Again I guess she was happy, just the "uniform" would make me sad.